Box Score BOX SCORE

Junior Nick Barbour scored 19 points, including the 1,000th of his career, in the High Point University men's basketball team's 86-77 win over Gwynedd-Mercy on Friday night at the Millis Center. Seniors Earnest Bridges and Tehran Cox each scored 15 points.

"I give credit to Gwynedd-Mercy, they played extremely well," said HPU head coach Scott Cherry. "We scored 86 points so we played well offensively. We made more free throws than they took. When we move the ball well on offense, we're very good. When we make careless mistakes, we're not. Defensively, we need to improve on all of the things we work on every day in practice."

High Point improved to 2-1 with the win while Gwynedd-Mercy stands at 1-1.

The game went back and forth in the early minutes. HPU took the lead for good on a Du'Vaughn Maxwell layup in the seventh minute. However, Gwynedd-Mercy kept it close all the way. Junior Shay Shine gave HPU a 10-point lead (38-28) when he hit a layup and a free throw with just under five minutes left in the half. But the Griffins cut it back down to five points when guard Jon Hogga hit a layup with two minutes to go. The Panthers quickly got the lead back to nine on a pair of free throws by Cox and a Bridges dunk and led, 46-37 at the break.

Gwynedd-Mercy's first two baskets of the second half were three-pointers by Dan Delconte and Hogga, and the Griffins cut HPU's lead to 48-43 just over a minute in. HPU quickly built its lead back up to double digits on a jumper from Barbour, a pair of baskets by Bridges and a free throw by Cox. The Panthers led by 13 points on two occassions midway through the second half -- first a Maxwell free throw that made it 65-52 and then a layup by Corey Law that made it 69-56.

In the final five minutes, Gwynedd-Mercy chipped away at HPU's lead and got it as low as four points (76-72) when Delconte converted a three-point play with under four minutes to go. That was as close as the Griffins would get. HPU was holding a five-point lead with under a minute to play when Law stole the ball and passed it to Shine for a fast-break layup. Barbour hit two free throws with 22 seconds remaining to seal the victory.

Hogga led all scorers with 24 points, and his 15 rebounds were also a game high. Gwynedd-Mercy had three other scorers in double-digits: Frank Champion (13 points), Jon Crabtree (12) and Delconte (11).

Bridges went 7-for-7 from the floor in his first start since the 2008-09 season. Shine scored 11 points to go along with a team-leading eight rebounds for HPU and Maxwell totaled 11 points and seven rebounds.

Barbour became the 29th member of HPU's 1,000-point club and now ranks 28th all-time with 1,014 points in his career at High Point.

Next up, HPU hits the road for a matchup with the Citadel on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Charleston, S.C.